Money Laundering- the Real Estate Bubble1

Abstract

The real estate has been the most common and one of the simplest means to launder money for over a century. ln the last two decades, it has been seen that there is a leap and jumps in the real estate markets globally. This has been fuelled by the generation of new ideas and their application for productive uses as an important component in the engine for growth and development. With advancement in technology, it is now possible to trace movements of the suspect funds and identify the real ownership of suspicious assets behind shell companies or offshore bank facades an enormously difficult task for the enforcement bodies, the intelligence agencies and governments. Estimates indicate that globally money laundering amounts to more than US $ 2 trillion to US $ 2.5 trillion annually (i.e. about 6-8% of World GDP 2006), through formal channels. Various HF studies and joint research findings have been given due attention resulting in decisions and formulation of regulations by GO! And international agencies-IMF, World Bank & ADB in last 20 years.